GUARDIAN OF THE IRON GATES
The Golubac Fortress was built at the very entrance to the Iron Gates, at the point where the Danube is the widest and then runs into the gorge of the Karpathian mountains. The Fortress was an important medieval military fortification erected at an exceptional strategic point. It enabled an easy control of all the land and waterway routes that connected the east and the west. This position was the reason why the bordering powers, Hungary and Serbia, and after them the Ottoman Empire, fought to capture the Golubac Fortress throughout the 14th and the 15th centuries, in order to gain control and power over the Danube border.
The Golubac Fortress was first mentioned in historical sources in 1335, as a fortification with Hungarian
military crew. Although it was founded well before this year, the exact period and the name of its creator remains unknown.